In the field of vehicle knee bolster devices there is an increasing demand for improving the functionality of the device during a crash or traffic collision in order to mitigate the collision impacts on the knee regions of an occupant.
Typically, a vehicle knee bolster device is arranged in a passenger compartment. As an example, the vehicle knee bolster may be mounted to an instrument panel in an interior of the vehicle such as a car or the like in order to support the movement of the occupant's knee upon a crash or collision.
In other words, a knee bolster device is a type of vehicle safety device designed to reduce leg injury, or more specifically to reduce collision impacts on the knee regions. To this end, its purpose is to cushion occupants during a crash and provide support or protection to their knees when they move forwards due to the forces caused by the collision.
Some types of knee bolster devices are designed with the intention of supplementing the protection of an occupant who is correctly restrained with a seat belt, while other types of devices are designed to support an occupant who is driving without a fastened seat belt.
More recently, some types of vehicle knee bolster devices have been further adapted to absorb energy. As an example, the vehicle knee bolster device can be arranged and configured to absorb kinetic energy of the occupant's knee caused by the crash or the collision by means of one or several energy-absorbing material elements.
Accordingly, knee bolster devices for vehicles are increasingly complex as the demands on the degree of absorbing energy of such systems increase.
However, due to an increasing demand for reducing weight and size of the components making up the device, while yet providing a functional reliable energy-absorbing knee bolster device, it remains a need for an improved vehicle knee bolster device.
In addition, it would be desirable to provide a knee bolster device that can be manufactured in large scales, yet keeping the costs of manufacturing of the device to a minimum.